Morning business headlines: 5-23-14

Friday, May 23, 2014 11:55 AM

HP to cut up to 16,000 more jobs

CNNMoney: The ax is falling once again at Hewlett-Packard Co. HP announced Thursday that it will cut an additional 11,000 to 16,000 jobs, after previously revealing plans for 34,000 layoffs. The news came as part of the company's second-quarter financial results, which were in line with analysts' expectations. Shares slipped 2 percent in after-hours trading Thursday.

Amazon escalates its battle against Hachette

The New York Times: Amazon, under fire in much of the literary community for energetically discouraging customers from buying books from the publisher Hachette, has abruptly escalated the battle. The retailer began refusing orders late Thursday for coming Hachette books, including J.K. Rowling's new novel. The paperback edition of Brad Stone's "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon" - a book Amazon disliked so much it denounced it - is suddenly listed as "unavailable."

Best Buy to Silicon Valley: Make cooler stuff

CNNMoney: Best Buy's rehabilitation efforts have run into a formidable challenge: a shortage of sexy new products to breathe life into sagging sales. But Best Buy blamed its latest sales drop on an overall "lack of innovation" hitting the consumer electronics industry. As much as this may sound like the old "blame it on the weather" excuse, observers say the absence of big-time gadgets to create buzz is a legitimate headwind.